Comment on "Plant diversity increases with the strength of negative density dependence at the global scale".

LaManna et al (Reports, 30 June 2017, p. 1389) found higher conspecific negative density dependence in tree communities at lower latitudes, yielding a possible mechanistic explanation for the latitudinal diversity gradient. We show that their results are artifacts of a selective data transformation and a forced zero intercept in their fitted model. A corrected analysis shows no latitudinal trend.